The Alliance for Automotive Innovation this week asked the four top leaders of Congress to put a permanent ban on Chinese connected vehicles into law before the current Congress adjourns in January. Letters went to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Chief executive John Bozzella, who signed the letters, called the sales of Chinese vehicles a national security problem rooted in unfair trade practices, subsidies, intellectual property theft and surveillance. In the letters, he wrote that subsidized Chinese models packed with connected software and hardware were flooding Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia, Mexico and South America, while the US had yet to see that wave. Lawmakers should act before the end of the year, he argued, and make the restriction permanent rather than temporary.
The push aligns with bills already in motion on Capitol Hill. The Senate side moved first, with its Commerce Committee voting in July to bar any seller more than 15 percent Chinese-owned. On the House side, Debbie Dingell and John Moolenaar have filed a companion measure, backed by 72 more cosponsors drawn from both parties.
Bozzella framed the outcome as a signal to Beijing, telling the four leaders that a ban enacted by the 119th Congress would answer China’s push to dominate global auto manufacturing with a national security response of its own.
The letters mark the industry’s strongest push yet for a statutory ban rather than an executive rule. Commerce Department restrictions already blocked Polestar sales in June, but automakers want the prohibition written into law so it survives changes in administration.
